Background: Postpartum follow up of women who have been found to have gestational diabetes during pregnancy is essential because of the strong association of gestational diabetes with subsequent type 2 diabetes. Postal reminders have been shown to increase significantly attendance for oral glucose tolerance testing postpartum. It is possible that a short message service (text) reminder system may also be effective. This trial aims to assess whether a text message reminder system for women who have experienced gestational diabetes in their index pregnancy will increase attendance for oral glucose tolerance testing within six months after birth.
Design: Single centre (Women's and Children's Hospital, South Australia), parallel group randomised controlled trial.
Inclusion criteria: Women diagnosed with gestational diabetes in their index pregnancy (oral glucose tolerance test with fasting glucose ≥ 5.5 mmol/L and/or two hour glucose ≥ 7.8 mmol/L), with access to a mobile phone, whose capillary blood glucose profile measurements prior to postnatal discharge are all normal (fasting glucose < 6.0 mmol/L, postprandial glucoses < 8.0 mmol/L).
Exclusion criteria: Pregestational diabetes mellitus, triplet/higher order multiple birth or stillbirth in the index pregnancy, requirement for interpreter.Trial entry and randomisation: Allocation to intervention will be undertaken using a telephone randomisation service (computer-generated random number sequence generation, with balanced variable blocks, and stratification by insulin requirement).Study groups: Women in the intervention group will receive a text reminder to attend for an oral glucose tolerance test at 6 weeks postpartum, with further reminders at 3 months and 6 months if they do not respond to indicate test completion. Women in the control group will receive a single text message reminder at 6 months postpartum.Blinding: Baseline data collection will be undertaken blinded. Blinding of participants and blinded collection of primary outcome data will not be possible for this study.Primary study outcome: Attendance for the oral glucose tolerance test within 6 months postpartum.
Sample size: 276 subjects will be required to show an 18% absolute increase in the rate of attendance (α=0.05 two tailed, β=80%, 5% loss to follow up) from 37% to 55% in the intervention group.
Discussion: Given the heightened risk of impaired glucose tolerance and type 2 diabetes in women who have had gestational diabetes, ensuring the highest possible rate of attendance for postpartum glucose tolerance testing, so that early diagnosis and intervention can occur, is important. A text message reminder system may prove to be an effective method for achieving improved attendance for such testing. This randomised controlled trial will assess whether such a system will increase rates of attendance for postpartum oral glucose tolerance testing in women who have experienced gestational diabetes.
Trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry - ACTRN12612000621819.